Ask a Korean! News: Don't Let the American Bedbugs Bite

In December 2007, a Korean-American woman in her 30s visited the Foreigner Clinic at Severance Hospital in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. The woman complained of itchiness all over her body, and showed an insect that she captured at her house.

The insect appeared to be a flea or a bedbug, whose case has been unreported in Korea for the past 20 years. The medical staff, astonished, commissioned an investigation to a team led by Prof. Yong Tae-Sun of Yonsei Medical School specializing in parasitology.

The investigation confirmed that the insect was a bedbug, which led to an immediate examination of the apartment where the woman lived. Dead bedbugs and larvae were found in the woman's room and the adjacent room in the same apartment.

However, fortunately, the investigation team believes that the bedbugs were not indigenous, but were imported from the United States.

Prof. Yong, who publicized his report on Korea Journal of Parasitology in December 2008, said "Based on the fact that the woman who complained of itchiness entered Korea 9 months ago, and that the other room in which the bedbugs were found was also usually occupied by short-term foreigner or Korean-American visitors, it appears that the bedbug was imported from the U.S." Prof. Yong added "There has been reports of bedbug infestation in New York and New Jersey."

The apartments in question were later quarantined and the bedbugs were exterminated. However, the woman who visited the Severance Hospital and the occupants of the building have all moved to a different location.

What is priceless, however, are the comments at the end of the article. One commenter sarcastically ribbed, "Time to hatch another candlelight protest." Another said, "Yankees also gave smallpox-laden blankets to Indians."

Epidemiologists frequently seek to trace where infections and infestations are coming from. So that's racism now? If, for example, a West Nile Virus-infected visitor comes in from the southern US, it's anti-Americanism to report that? Methinks some folks' outrage detectors are a bit too sensitive.

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About TK

The Korean is a Korean American living in Washington D.C. / Northern Virginia. He lived in Seoul until he was 16, then moved to Los Angeles area. The Korean refers to himself in the third person because he thinks it sounds cool.